This Wild and Precious Life: 2018

Thursday, December 27, 2018

A Few of My Favorite Things (2018)

I'm taking a page out of Oprah's book and sharing some of my favorite things from this past year!

Last year for Christmas, Ben and I decided to get a nicer coffee machine. At $200 it was definitely an investment, but we knew Black Friday would possibly lead to a good deal. Kohl's mis-marked it for $75 and even after pointing out the incorrect price, they sold it to us for the $75! We call it the Christmas Coffee Miracle. It's currently on sale on Amazon for $125 if you've got some Christmas money to spend. The frother is my favorite thing about it (as well as the reusable filter). It's a little more environmentally friendly than using a machine with K-Cups which I appreciate.

D. Whigham Ceramics

I lived with the Whighams (2 of my favorite years ever) and Danielle shared her dream of starting a ceramics business. Well, this year it happened and it's the most gorgeous pottery ever (I may be biased, but browse her photos - you'll soon agree). I love that the mugs are microwave safe (but not husband dropping safe). I also have several succulent pots and the plants in them are happy dudes. Check out her Facebook Page and follow her on Insta. Her throwing videos are mesmerizing (and oddly soothing).

Erin Condren Life Planner

After years of wanting a Life Planner then settling for a cheaper substitute that I ended up disliking and abandoning, I finally bought the planner of my dreams with birthday money this year. They are currently 20% off and you can save even more with my referal code. It is the first planner I've owned that I truly keep up with because you can personalize it to a certain degree to be what you need it to be.

Create 365 Planner Stickers

Part of the success of using the planner consistently is planner stickers. I was a sticker junkie as a child. Adding stickers makes just about anything more fun. I love the Create 365 line (also available at Hobby Lobby) and have a few different packs that cover all my planner sticker needs.

Flair Pens

I also have metric crap ton of fun pens to use. Flair Pens are by far my favorites for using in the planner, but I also love Staedtler Triplus Fineliners and Papermate Inkjoy Gel Pens.

Silhouette Cameo 3

Technically I got this in 2017, but really put it to use this past year. I made all of our shirts for our Disney trip, various gifts, and wall decals for our new home. It's fairly easy to use and the software plays nicely with Photoshop which I appreciate.

Target Photo

I've gone old school and started printing off some of my photos. Target used to use Snapfish or Shutterfly and the quality was dubious. Now that they've gone back to just Target Photo, the quality is great for 1 hour prints. I especially love printing 8x10's to hang up in our house and the quality holds up even for a larger print.

Goodreads

By far my favorite app of 2018. It tracks your reading and lets you follow your friends to see what they're reading too (although, don't follow your high school English teacher unless you want to find out they read some pretty risque books). My favorite part of the app is that you can set a reading goal for the year. I'm upping my goal this year a bit after reaching 500% of my goal this year. Also, shout out to my school library and Waukee Public Library for keeping me well stocked on books this year!

Color Story

Color Story is my favorite photo editing app. It has lots of editing tools as well as filter and effect packs you can purchase if you like. 90% of my phone photo edits are done through this app (the other 10% are with Snapseed). Need help with making the most of your phone photography? I'd love to chat about some of my favorite tips/tricks!

It took me a while to jump on the My Favorite Murder train, but I've more than made up for it by bingeing hard the last couple months. If you are a fan of true crime, but don't like super spooky, this may be your new favorite thing. Just don't listen to it when your home alone and in your basement. That's a really poor choice. Trust me.

What are some of your favorite things you discovered this year? (or what you're looking forward to in 2019 - I'm looking at you Circular Saw that arrives in a few days)

Sunday, December 2, 2018

The Year of Becoming a Reader

I've been a book nerd as long as I could remember. My family is a book family. We always got books from the book orders. My pops took us to the library. I spent my allowance at Guzzardo's Book Nook on a regular basis. I once peed my pants standing in line to check out books at school because if I didn't check them out during library time I'd have to wait a whole week to get new ones.

Somewhere around college I became less of a reader for fun and more of a reader because I had to do required reading for coursework. I'd pick up books in the summer, but during the school year fun reading went out the window. By the time I started grad school reading for fun just wasn't happening a whole lot.

So. This year I challenged myself to become a reader again. I set a goal of 12 books. 1 per month. I was worried that was going to be too much to accomplish considering I was averaging 3-4 books a year the previous few years.

Well. This past week I hit 50 and I cancelled Hulu+.

So, I'm sharing some of my favorite reads from this past year in case anyone is looking for a good read (Or 2. Or 10. Or whatever.)

Best Non-Fiction

My mom and I watched the movie and were rolling from laughing. A sweet friend let me borrow the book and it was a pretty quick read. Just as funny as the movie and written by an Iowa author.

Best Guilty Pleasure

This series is Hunger Games meets The Bachelor. Is it a deep thinker? Definitely not. Is it pretty cheesy? YUP. But, did I shotgun the entire series in about a week? Most definitely.

Best Chick Lit

The movie doesn't follow the book 100%, but it's the rare book that the differences work in the book and is easy to understand why some things had to change for the movie. The second one is sitting on my nightstand and am hoping to get to it before the end of the year!

Best Historical Fiction

This book and it's sequel, The War I Finally Won, were so so beautiful. Honorable mention to, Whistling in the Dark by Shirley Hughes.

Best Self-Improvement

My word for 2018 was Lovely so this book paired well with my mindset for this year. I love Annie F. Downs. Remember God is also on my nightstand to read pile. Follow her on Instagram. Listen to her podcast. Read her books. She's great.

Favorite ICCA

I've read 13 of this year's ICCA books. With 20 total, finishing the whole list before the end of the school year should be easily accomplished. I've loved a handful of them, but this is the one that surprised me the most and loved the story so so much.

Best Free Verse

I'm not a poetry lover so the fact that I've read more than one free verse book this year is just as surprising to me as it may be to you. This one had a sweet message and was a ridiculously fast read.

Favorite Recommendation

This book is adorable. I won't spoil the surprising way it's written, but I absolutely loved it. It's a lighthearted falling in love story that's a quick read, but will leave you grinning.

Book I Didn't Expect to Love So Much

This was a book fair purchase last year. It's a hefty book and honestly, was a little daunting. It took me a while to get into it because I started it after reading a string of sad/deep thinking books and it seemed like this one may be a sad/deep thinking book. I powered through and ended up loving it. Such a wonderful message and beautifully written.

Favorite Book of the Year

This book made me think. It made me cry. It made me mad. It made me understand my privileges. It has stayed with me even though I finished it a couple months ago. I would recommend it to anyone.

Book I'm Most Looking Forward to Reading in 2019

Michelle Obama is one of my biggest role models and I'm looking forward to reading her book...alas I'm like 24th on the hold list at my library so it may be a while!

My goal for the coming year is 25. Why not 50? Well, I don't know what 2019 is going to bring and I want to make sure I don't get frustrated with my goal (because I know myself and that's something I do). Feel free to follow me on Goodreads and suggest some of your favorite reads for me to read to make next year's goal!

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Rescued

A few weeks ago I was sitting in our empty apartment finishing up some cleaning when all of a sudden I was overwhelmed by a flood of emotions (surprise, surprise!) of all the people and events that had gotten me to this point in my life.

5 years ago I was in a place where I'd stopped listening to what God wanted for me and was trying to do it all on my own. Not the best thing to do when your God is a jealous God and knows what it takes to bring you back into the fold. He sent a whale. For 3 months I felt swallowed whole and desperately trying to stay afloat both literally and figuratively. I was going to have to walk away from my home and financial security and there was nothing I could do about it. Well, at least not on my own.

But, every time I felt myself running out of breath, He was there with a buoy. He found me a home to land in that healed my heart in so many ways. He repaired relationships I had neglected and formed new ones with people who could encourage and challenge me on the new path my life was taking. I let God know the desires of my heart, and in HIS timing, I found Ben (or Ben found me) and now we have a home to call our own (I'm a girl who has simple dreams). And it's all because when the whale spit me back out, I ran towards God as fast as I could.

You are not hidden

There's never been a moment

You were forgotten

You are not hopeless

Though you have been broken

Your innocence stolen

I hear you whisper underneath your breath

I hear your SOS, your SOS

I will send out an army to find you

It's true, I will rescue you

In the middle of the darkest night

(Rescue - Lauren Daigle)

If you would have told me 5 years ago what my life would like at this very moment, I'd probably have shook my head and called you crazy.  But, this life, right now? Is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. There are still days where the whale feels like it could be looming, but I know how to stop from being swallowed up again. 

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

No Spend Month

Recently, a podcast I listen to (Young House Love Has a Podcast) decided to do a no spend month. At first I thought it sounded crazy, but, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to give it a try.

I'm not a crazy spender, but...I can easily fall into the trap of adding a magazine to my cart at the grocery store, choosing to go out to eat when I don't feel like cooking, and let's face it, buy things I didn't need in the first place at Target.

We do fine financially, but I want to re-train my brain to respect our money more. We are approaching house hunting and I'd rather save money to put towards new house things than random purchases.

What's on the No-Go List:

-Books/Magazines (read what I already have/go to library)
-Art/Craft supplies (I have plenty, exceptions only for paid commission work)
-no pens or notebooks
-Zero Trips to Target without Ben (Yikes)
-Zero purchases on Amazon (Yikes)
-limit eating out (need to add more quick meal ingredients to the fridge/pantry)
-no clothes or shoes
-no home decor
-no make-up (except mascara if I run out... that stuff dries out so quickly!)
-no skin care unless something runs out completely
-no entertainment (itunes, movies, dvds)
-Starbucks/other coffee shops

What's on the exceptions list:

-gifts for any celebrations (we have grad parties coming up)
-Quilt Shop road trip with mom (have already set a specific budget for this and was planned prior to deciding to do this and it's for my birthday)
- toiletries if they run out (shampoo, toothpaste)
-medicine (allergy season y'all)
-eating out if invited by friends
-household necessities, but only if what we have runs out
-anything that I have a gift card for

What I'm hoping to gain:

-More time. Shopping pit stops add up and sometimes one trip turns into another.
-less stuff cluttering up our apartment - we are potentially packing it all up in a few months - don't need to add more stuff to move!
-an appreciation for what I already have
-losing the fomo that sometimes causes impulse purchases
-being aware of how I spend money and how I can be even more respectful and responsible with our finances

It ain't going to be easy. But, I hope it's going to be a good learning experience...so no more Target runs until May 25!